Responsibility, Redemption, Rebellion
by promise99
Summary: Artemis fails in her mission, getting her fired.  This is the story of that mission and how she got her job back.  For O's Collateral Damage Challenge.  Longers ONE-SHOT ever.  R&R


**Kay, this is for the Collateral Damage challenge, run by the fabulously crazy Orangevbnin. (I don't know why I just wrote out her whole name…) Anyways, this is an Artemis fic. It's an attempt at a darkfic, but since I have no experience in the dark field, I'm just lucky if it doesn't suck. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this.**

Artemis POV

"Artemis? What the hell! We told you to save your innocent, not kill him! You gave into your emotions. You're off the team, effective immediately."

My world just crumbled from underneath my feet. I was off of the team? The one place where I actually had friends. Friends that weren't afraid of me, friends that cared for me and helped me. And now I had to leave them.

I went straight into my room and started to pack my stuff. Was I hurt? Yes. Did I want to fight Batman's decision? Yes. Was it my fault? Wait for it…Yes.

I grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulder. I took my bow and walked out of my room, turning my back on the one place that treated me like a human, not as a tool.

As I was leaving, the two people I didn't expect to see me off caught up with me. You guessed it: Red Arrow and Kid Flash.

"Are you here to rub it in? You finally have me off the team, out of the mountain. You got what you wanted from day one. Just leave me alone."

I turned my back to them and made my way to the portal. Red Arrow grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.

"Look, I don't believe what you did was your fault, entirely. We came to help you plead for your innocence and your acceptance back into the team."

I smiled, but it was a hollow smile. "You can't go against Batman. He'll skin you alive. Don't put yourselves in harm's way over this. It's my mistake, my problem to fix. I'll see you later."

I turned away, but Wally grabbed my waist. He proceeded to cup my face with his hands, forcing me to look into his eyes. What I saw blew my mind. His eyes were full of determination, but that's not what shocked me. His eyes were brimming with tears.

* * *

><p>I met up with Roy and Wally at the food court in the Gotham City Mall. It's a shock to me how a simple city can have its own mall, but Bruce Wayne <strong>does <strong>live here.

Roy came to the table first, with a tray fully loaded with spaghetti, tacos, fried rice, subs, hamburgers, you get the gist of it. Wally came over with bottles of water. I sat across from the both of them. It had been a week since I was evicted from Mount Justice. I was seething. The betrayal hurt like a mother fucker. I was gonna get him back for this.

Roy was the first to speak. "What happened, Artemis? What did you do to lose your position?"

I grinned solemnly to myself. "It started like this…"

* * *

><p>It started with a chase. Always a chase, right? Batman had sent us on a mission to defend Pearl Harbor from some terrorists. There was a professor involved, Doctor Penelope Young, who was developing a super GPS system. I was in charge of keeping her safe. And I was failing at my job.<p>

Kaldur had assigned me and me alone to defend Dr. Young. No backup. He had Robin go with KF, Megan go with Conner, and he was scouting, or something. He basically left me to fulfill the role of babysitter. Perfect.

Well, in the middle of guarding this chick, the one girl who has dirt on me **had **to show up. It's official. I hate Cheshire.

See, Cheshire had broken into the lab and hidden in the air ducts. When I turned my back for a minute, she pounced. She set off a smoke bomb in the lab, disorienting me. And that wasn't the worst of it. She left a huge goon for me to take on. Good thing I put a tracer pin on Dr. Young, right?

Well, it took me a few shots, since he kept snapping the cords, but I managed to bind the big old goon. And then I took off. Communication in vital, right?

_Megan! Cheshire showed up and took the doctor! I need help! I can't beat her by myself!_

Megan responded, _Artemis, we'll be on our way as soon as possible! Don't worry!_

Seriously? That's all I get?

_Time to radio Robin…_

I grabbed my communication device and called the boy wonder.

"Robin! Cheshire kidnapped the doctor and is headed in your direction! I put a tracer on her!"

I could hear Robin speaking while grinning. "Alright. KF, time for a fight! Artemis, get over here as soon as you can!"

"You know it!"

I ran my way to Robin's location, which was about a mile from where I was stationed. I scaled the nearest building, looking for any sign of a struggle, just like…**he **taught me to.

What I saw blew my mind. I was watching Cheshire tangle with Robin, who was definitely holding his own. Wally got to deal with her lackeys. I saw Wally zipping from baddy to baddy, landing punches and kicks with deadly accuracy. Robin was using a bo staff and his martial arts training to go hand to hand with Cheshire.

I shot a line down to a lamppost, where I would zip line down if the need arose. The one person I didn't see was the professor. I pulled out my communicator, and saw the blip of the tracker. It was in the building behind all of the action. I had two choices: beat the crap out of Cheshire and her goons and then get to the doctor, or stealth my way to the doctor.

Batman's words rang through my head. "The doctor is your only priority. Everything else is secondary. Only engage if the need arises. Do not start needless trouble…." I popped that flashback bubble.

_Looks like stealthing it is the better choice. Let's do this._

I shot a smoke arrow down into the battlefield. Robin noticed and pulled out a few smoke bombs, so I got to go straight for the doctor. As I made my way to the shack, I saw Megan and Superboy arrive at the battle.

_Cheshire knows she's outdone. She can't hold her own against all of us…she'll try to escape. I need to get to the warehouse pronto._

I ran as quickly as I could to this abandoned shack. The wood was moldy, and there were holes in the oddest places of wood. Weeds grew rampant in the yard. I could hear someone struggling in the shack. I saw an opening in the top of the shed, so I kicked in the ceiling, which surprised the doctor.

I grabbed her, and shot a smoke arrow into the shack, to throw Cheshire off.

"You're safe now! Don't worry!"

I heard a response. "You're the one who should be worrying!"

_Damn it!_

I let go of the doctor, which wasn't really the doctor. Three guesses who….

Robin saw what was happening. "Clayface, get away from her!"

He threw some sonic disks at Clayface, who just stood there and took it. I backed off and shot an ice arrow at his foot, which froze him to the concrete.

I saw Megan getting pummeled by Cheshire. Superboy was taking care of the goons. Wally was making sure none of the innocents were hurt, and Robin was supporting me. Where was Kaldur?

"Robin, where's Aqualad?"

"I don't know, he's out of range of telepathy and he won't pick up his communicator!"

_Crap. The one person who could take down Clayface and he's too chicken to show. Perfect._

"You can't beat me, you ignorant slut!" Clayface lunged. "You'll never find Dr. Young! After we put her in that greenhouse, you'll be begging for us to stop!"

_Idiot._

I turned to Robin. "Megan! Can you take care of him with your telepathy? We know where we need to go!"

"Sure, Artemis!" Megan lifted him up and threw him into the water, where he dissolved into nothingness.

Megan called the Bioship, and we all got on. We needed to figure out what was happening.

"Artemis, where do we need to go?"

I turned to Robin. "Did you hear what he said? He said 'greenhouse.' Ring any bells?"

Everyone gasped in realization. "Poison Ivy!"

"Exactly. What she wants with a super GPS, I don't know. But we have to stop her and get the doctor back. And we need to get Kaldur back."

I put two and two together. If Kaldur wasn't helping us, it wasn't because he didn't want to, it was because he was getting controlled. Poison Ivy was the perfect match. If she had control of him, we'd be in some trouble. He was the leader, one of the strongest people we had…which meant that I just had to put Poison Ivy down first.

Megan put the Bioship down in a huge field of flowers, with an enormous greenhouse in the center of the field. We all knew what to do. Robin had given us gas masks and antidotes in case she managed to poison one of us.

"Ready team?"

"You know it."

Supey kicked down the doorway, and it hit Poison Ivy straight in the face. Well, it would've, if she didn't have a HUGE Venus flytrap sitting in front of her. It munched the door like I would munch a potato chip.

_Not good._

Robin threw a flame disk and it set the plant on fire, and Megan and I searched for the doctor. All of a sudden, we were shot back by a burst of highly pressurized water. We knew it meant that Kaldur was under her spell.

"You will not attack my mistress' babies like that!" He slashed with a water whip, but we dodged.

"Kaldur! Snap out of it! We're your friends!"

Megan lifted him up and threw him after he snapped his whip at her. She knocked him out. She then lifted up Poison Ivy, who told us that the doctor was somewhere in the field.

We left the greenhouse, after incarcerating Poison Ivy, and searched the area. Wally searched on foot and Megan looked from the sky and via thoughts. Robin searched the area via radar, and Superboy used his ears to try to **hear **footsteps.

BOOM!

We were all tossed backwords, and Cheshire had grabbed me out of nowhere. I kicked her in the face.

"Bitch, where is the doctor?"

"If you win, I'll tell you…."

It was an all out smack down, and the gloves were off. I launched a flurry of kicks at her, and I swung at her with my bow. I made sweet contact with her ribcage, and she buckled over. She delivered a vicious leg sweep and knocked me off balance. I started to run from her, try to put some distance between us. I knocked an arrow. She was right behind me, trying to get at me with her ninja claws. I shot the arrow, and from the tip emerged a boxing glove. It knocked her out cold.

Megan got to her and read her mind. She knew that Cheshire was in the greenhouse. The doctor was buried in the greenhouse.

I ran over to the greenhouse, looking for a sign that the earth was freshly moved. I saw a dark patch of dirt and started digging.

Suddenly, Superboy grabbed my waist and jumped away from the patch.

"What the hell are you doing? Dr. Young is buried in there! Let me go!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

_A…bomb? Cheshire tried to kill me? Oh, God!_

My knees buckled. I sat hunched over, clenching my torso, and I started to cry. The team consoled me.

* * *

><p>Roy let out a low whistle. "Damn, girl! You've got guts. I'll tell you what. I'll confront Batman in front of the whole league. It sounds like you did a good job leading the team, with Robin, of course."<p>

I sat there, on the verge of tears, just remembering the whole thing. Seeing the bloody corpse of Doctor Young….there was no worse feeling that knowing that I failed the mission. Of course, coming from my background, that wasn't the first corpse I've seen, but knowing that I failed…not good.

Wally put his hand on mine. "Artemis….don't worry. We'll get you your job back, just wait."

_I'm not sure I want it back._

* * *

><p>I was ready for this. I clasped my hands behind my back and walked into the inner chamber of the conference room. I saw the original seven members of the league. The sight of them took my breath away.<p>

Roy, Wally, Robin, and Megan sat with me at a table set up for us.

"Artemis, we're gonna get you your job back."

Batman was outraged. "Do you have a reason for interrupting league business? As you can see, we are quite busy."

There were UNO cards on the table. They weren't busy.

Megan spoke up. "Please, you **have **to admit Artemis back into Young Justice. She led us when Kaldur was MIA. She was the one who figured out that Dr. Young was buried in the greenhouse, that Poison Ivy was behind it all! She didn't fail! Uncle J'onn, please do something!"

J'onn stood silent.

Diana spoke up on my behalf. "Perhaps you were too harsh in your judgement, Bruce. This one has shown excellent leadership qualities. She is well suited to be a second in command to Robin."

Superman agreed. "Bruce, she led them. She captured Cheshire. She's the one who carried out the mission. All heroes fail at some point, but to dismiss her for her first offense…"

I smiled, but then I glared at Batman. "What was the importance of the GPS you wanted us to protect? She was in the process of manufacturing it, and I busted my ass to keep me and the team alive. We have a right to know what was so important!"

Bruce stood up and walked toward me. "Impudent child! Do not question the orders I give you!"

I smiled. "Oh, poor Bruce, you never had a childhood! BIG FUCKIN' DEAL! I was raised by two mass murderers! I'm working for YOU! You should give me more credit. I kept your son alive."

Bruce took a step back. He was about to respond when Superman got in between us. "Artemis, outside. Now."

I stomped outside, infuriated. Superman followed me. "Artemis, what you just did was extremely rude and inappropriate. I think you deserve your spot on the team back."

"That was not rude, you…..wait, what?"

Superman smiled. "You stood up for yourself. Against Batman. Hardly anyone has the nerve to do that. You've just shown me that you have some serious courage. You're back on the team."

I smiled and jumped up and down. I hugged Superman with all my might. "Thank you, so much, Superman! I won't let you down!"

"I hope not."

I ran over to my friends and grabbed them. "Come on, guys. Let's blow this taco stand."

**For a darkfic, it had a happy ending. Hmm. I think that the flashback was good. But I wrote this in one straight shot. Please read and review. If I get enough 10 word minimum reviews, I just might turn this into a chaptered fic, with Bruce's perspective on the whole thing…. **


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